Daily Independent: Breath of Death VII

The Daily Independent is a recurring feature in which we shine a light into the darkened wilderness of indie gaming, illuminating both the good and the bad of what we find there.

From Zeboyd, Breath of Death VII: The Beginning is another of their goofy 8-bit turn-based RPGs, this one set in a post-apocalyptic world in which everyone is a skeleton, or green, or has a mermaid tail, or is a ghost.

Our hero, in fact, is a skeleton called Dem who roams around fighting monsters and stuff in random encounters with his party of bros. The monsters are all classic 8-bit be asters, like beeflies and fish men and things like that.

Like … breath of Death VII Is humorous, but not laugh-out-loud funny. It’s the kind of game that will make you smile and generally leave you feel pretty good after you’ve put it away.

A lot of the good things I feel about the game have to do with its music. It’s a non-MIDI score, and it’s pretty upbeat. It changes depending on where you are, whether you’re in a cave or out on the main map or in a town, and the best music of all comes after you defeat some enemies. I seriously like to, after I kill some bad guys, just sit at the “you are victorious” screen and just let the music play. It just made me happy.

I’m finding I’m running out of things to say about Breath of Death VII. Most 8-bit RPGs are similar in all the ways that matter, and that certainly is the case here aside from the cheeky sense of humor and the music, which, again, is so awesome. The thing is that while it is sort of a parody of the genre, it’s also a legitimate entry in it. So what you’re getting here is an actual no-s–t RPG.

I’m tempted to think that others might like it more than I do; certainly, Hornshaw enjoyed Zeboyd’s other old-style RPG title Cthulhu Saves the World more than I do this one. Maybe I’m missing something here. Either way, I have no problem endorsing a purchase here, as Breath of Death VII comes bundled with Cthulhu Saves the World on Steam for a mere $3, and it’s only a dollar by itself on Xbox Live. That’s a very small chunk of change for a couple titles that will no doubt keep you from getting bored for many an hour. So just do it.

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